There's a Jaben in the city, so very close to Melb Uni. It's good for headphones, but pretty scarce for desktop amps and DACs. Addicted to Audio has you covered there.

About $6.5k down here :-)   I'm of course only guessing that, at three times the price of the Hugo, it might offer superior sound quality.

I wonder how the new Hugho TT will compare. 

Ordered!   Thanks Gary. I hope the Cyclops wakes up my 650. Cheers!

Thanks Gary. I now need a balanced cable for the 650.

Gary, how much volume dial movement do you get on the Cyclops when using the HD650?

Stealthy!

Not sure if it has been posted here before, but I found a great leather case for the AK120 locally for only $10. The only problem is that the manufacturer may have stopped producing it recently (thought it may still be sitting neglected on retailers' shelves). It's the Tamrac Topanga Case 3 for...

Arnaud, did you use the HA-1's USB input? I felt the same re the HF sizzle, but after switching in a Sonicweld Diverter, the sizzle disappeared. I think a good good usb-spdif converter is 'needed'.

It's understandable when you hear the two phones against each other. I think the Oppo's roll-off disguises the sound of ambience as blackness. It really is an inky background where sounds come out of the void with beautiful musicality; whereas with the LCD3 you're far more aware of the recording...

Had a decent demo of the PM-1 today against the LCD-3 (non-fazor). The audio chain was: Macbook - Sonicweld Diverter - Oppo HA-1 DAC/Amp.   Briefly, the PM-1 was impressive. We could only run it single ended from the HA-1, whereas the LCD-3 went into the balanced output.   In this setup, the...

Nice one Jo.

Prepo,   I friend of mine has the 777, and reckons its usb implementation is superior to the Sonicweld Diverter (non-HR) he had (and consequently sold); which is saying a lot as the Diverter is simply awesome.

  Have never owned the Taurus, but only demo'd it twice with the 3, and in my opinion it is a poor match.

I used to get pops with the U3 which went away with a slightly better computer, but it looks like you've tried that route already.   My opinion of the U3 is not high; but am interested to know whether you prefer it to M7's onboard usb?